


Questions & Mark

by applejwoos (kenmarcadeblues)



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Awkwardness, Cute, First Meetings, Fluff and Crack, I Tried, Inspired By Tumblr, M/M, One Shot, Pre-Slash, mark just keeps laughing, written for a birthday!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-24
Updated: 2019-02-24
Packaged: 2019-11-04 13:59:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17899424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kenmarcadeblues/pseuds/applejwoos
Summary: In truth, Sicheng did have a feeling that that campus tour was too fast for anything to sink fully into his brain.(or markwin in: “I sat down in the wrong class and I’m panicking but don’t want to get up and leave because the class has started and you think it’s hilarious” - the au)





	Questions & Mark

**Author's Note:**

> dedicated to my internet daughter kenzie! here’s hoping we all stop sleeping on this ship <3

Sicheng steps into the lecture hall and gazes at the seating in the wide room. Class was supposed to start in exactly a minute, and so the professor is hovering around her podium, ready to begin. Back home, 100-level classes were always filled to the brim, and this one is likewise.

 

Making it to the Arts Complex in one piece (and technically on time) was an accomplishment, but he can’t revel in that fact. His eyes dart around and find a vacancy near the middle of the third row, and without any hesitation, he speeds toward it.

 

Setting his satchel on the floor, he sits; leaving a seat between himself and a guy who’s almost in the dead center. After smoothing down his cardigan, he takes out a notebook and a pen. Being in the very front isn’t ideal, but the proximity to the professor could get her to notice him, or at the very least keep himself focused on the elder’s words.

 

“Like I said last week,” the professor begins without warning, her voice booming through the speakers and causing Sicheng to jump. Around him, the chatter of his fellow students ceases. “Today is the last day to turn in your research assignment for a grade.” She grabs a stack of papers from her desk and hits them against the wood with a resounding thump. “If you can’t get it to me within the next two minutes, don’t bother. It’s over.” Sicheng watches as a trickle of classmates stand and anxiously gravitate towards the woman, forming a small line at her desk. He rakes a hand through his golden hair. Just how many assignments had he missed? Will he be able to make them up? Will he even be given the chance?

 

The semester began two weeks ago but Sicheng is an exchange student and today is his first day of class in Korea. He’s four classes behind everyone else, and so he expects to be confused. It won’t be easy, but he could manage. If he has to ask complete strangers who might judge him for being sub-par with their language for pages and pages of notes in every single course he’d registered for, then so be it.

 

When the line clears, the stack of papers is visibly taller. “Alright!” the professor says with a clap of her hands. “First thing on the agenda is to introduce the first big piece you’ll be writing.” Behind her, the projector screen lights.

 

Sicheng reads the title of the PowerPoint.

 

Then he reads it again.

 

And then once more, except this time with slightly squinted eyes.

 

 _“Project #1: Screenplay Script,”_ Sicheng mumbles aloud. This is definitely not a music class. “Shit.”

 

 

Mark looks over at the guy sitting closest to him on the right. When the blond first sat down, he’d seemed way too chipper for a class this early. Now, as Mrs. Jo outlines the project, the kid is shuffling in his chair and fidgeting around. It’s quite distracting.

 

“Hey, are you okay?” Mark asks in whisper-tone, turning to the uncomfortable male. He swears he has never caught a glimpse of this boy before today. (He’d remember such a face, surely.)

 

“Um...yes?” is his reply, an awkward smile tugging his lips.

 

“‘Yes’ with a question mark?” Mark asks bemusedly, his eyebrows quirking. Not only is his classmate unsure of being okay, but his Korean has a definitive foreign twang to it.

 

Color spreads into the boy’s cheeks. “I...am not supposed to be here.”

 

“Here? In this class?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Where should you be?”

 

“Music 103.”

 

“Ah! It’s just in the next building over,” Mark says, gesturing vaguely to the left. “You were really close!” The boy’s expression drops as if those rosy cheeks of his contain lead and there’s something about him, or his situation, or maybe both, that warrants a giggle to bubble past Mark’s lips. “Dude, just go.”

 

“N-no.”

 

“No?”

 

“Don’t want to disrupt,” the boy reasons.  Although they’ve been whispering this whole time, his voice sounds small. “I’ll just...stay…”

 

“Come on! You’re fine,” insists Mark. “It’s no big deal.” The boy just shakes his head and stares helplessly. Mark is confused but chuckles anyway. “Okay, then.”

 

 

Sicheng alternates between reading his music textbook and pretending to _totally not be reading in class because that’s disrespectful and he definitely needs to listen to this lecture on writing._ He tries to be chill and casual but it’s all pointless.

 

The guy in the center of the row keeps looking at him; Sicheng feels his eyes crawling along his side profile. If he turns slightly, they meet gazes, and the guy’s angular face crumples into a dumb grin.

 

And then he laughs. And when he laughs, Sicheng’s ears burn. And when Sicheng’s ears burn, Sicheng hisses things under his breath along the lines of, “Shut up and pay attention,” before resuming his painfully awkward half-charade.

 

An hour and 25 minutes pass like this, until finally class is dismissed. Sicheng heaves out a sigh full of self-pity as he repacks his bag and slings it onto his shoulder.

 

Dumb Grin is in front of him, a backpack on his back and a stupid smile on his thin lips. “So what’d you think of Writer’s Workshop?” he asks teasingly.

 

“Are you getting paid for this? For annoying strangers?”

 

Of course, he laughs at this, too. “Really, though.”

 

Sicheng rolls his eyes. “Seems cool, I guess. And a lot of work. You, on the other hand--”

 

“My name’s Mark,” Dumb Grin interjects happily.

 

“ _Mark_ ,” Sicheng addresses the other male for the first time, “is not cool but still a lot of work.”

 

“Okay, I know, I know. Sorry...I couldn’t help it!” Mark says exasperatedly. “I dunno, you’re just so ridiculous...and cute…”

 

“Ridiculous?” Sicheng wants to be offended, but he has to agree. His anxiety makes him do questionable things sometimes.

 

“Yeah, but like, in a cute way!” Mark asserts.

 

Sicheng pouts. “Who are you calling cute? I’m probably older than you.” It’s a slightly risky claim, but he’s feeling brave. Writer’s Workshop is most likely a 100-level course and on top of that, Mark somewhat resembles a 12 year old.

 

Mark leans against their row’s table. “Ninety-nine.”

 

“Ninety-seven,” Sicheng counters smugly, crossing his arms.

 

Mark’s doe eyes go wide, and Sicheng can see the regret swimming in them. “H-hyung…” utters the younger, a blush dusting his high cheekbones. This time it’s Sicheng’s turn to let out a snort. “I’m an idiot. Um...hey, how about you don’t kill me and I escort you to your next class?”

 

To be honest, accepting this offer would be far from Sicheng’s mind if not for two things; one: Mark is (unfortunately) kind of handsome, and two: hearing the brat speak formally to him now is so, so satisfying.

 

And so he reaches forward and tugs the top of the boy’s pink ear. “Let’s go, then!”

 

He doesn’t wait for a reaction; he starts walking out of the row without a backwards glance, but he knows Mark is coming because of the nervous chuckle that follows close behind.


End file.
